RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

T&T's wildlife is un­der threat of habi­tat loss.

It's why Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein wants cit­i­zens to join the fight to pro­tect en­dan­gered wildlife.

Speak­ing in com­mem­o­ra­tion of World Wildlife Day dur­ing a func­tion held in St Joseph on Fri­day, Ho­sein said a con­cert­ed ef­fort was need­ed to en­sure that more species are not en­dan­gered by over­hunt­ing, loss of habi­tat and pol­lu­tion.

Al­ready 396 Hon­orary Game War­dens have been ap­point­ed but Ho­sein be­lieves the pub­lic al­so has a role to play. He told stu­dents they too must be­gin to build aware­ness.

"There is still much work to be done to en­sure the sur­vival of our unique and di­verse wildlife. All sec­tors of so­ci­ety must work to­geth­er to make a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to­ward sus­tain­abil­i­ty, wildlife and bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion," he said.

Say­ingT&T is home to a rich ar­ray of unique and fas­ci­nat­ing wildlife, Ho­sein said this in­cludes the Gold­en Tree Frog (Phy­to­tri­ades au­ra­tus), birds such as the White-tailed Sabrew­ing (Campy­lopterus en­sipen­nis), Trinidad Mot­mot (Mo­mo­tus ba­hamen­sis) and the Trinidad Pip­ing-guan or Pawi (Pip­ile pip­ile), which is one of the rarest birds in the world.

"It is im­por­tant that we cel­e­brate the in­cred­i­ble bio­di­ver­si­ty of our twin is­land state and rec­og­nize the im­por­tance of pro­tect­ing our nat­ur­al her­itage," he said.

Ho­sein lament­ed that many of these species are threat­ened by habi­tat loss, over­hunt­ing, and are vic­tims of il­le­gal wildlife trade.

"We must take ac­tion to con­serve and re­store their habi­tats, com­bat wildlife traf­fick­ing, and pro­mote sus­tain­able prac­tices that al­low both peo­ple and wildlife to thrive," he said.

Ho­sein said T&T has made im­por­tant strides in wildlife con­ser­va­tion, in­clud­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of sev­er­al pro­tect­ed ar­eas and the im­ple­men­ta­tion of laws and poli­cies to pro­tect en­dan­gered species.

Ho­sein al­so urged cit­i­zens to spend some time ap­pre­ci­at­ing the beau­ty and val­ue of T&T's wildlife.

"Whether through a vis­it to the Ca­roni bird sanc­tu­ary, a hike to the Paria Wa­ter­fall, or sim­ply tak­ing a mo­ment to ob­serve the crea­tures around us, we can all deep­en our con­nec­tion to the nat­ur­al world and in­spire oth­ers to do the same," he added.

World Wildlife Day is cel­e­brat­ed every year on March 3.

It com­mem­o­rates the sign­ing of the Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tion­al Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Fau­na and Flo­ra (CITES).